It was a fruit knife.

The blade was about 15 centimeters long, but perhaps due to prolonged exposure to the air, there were some rust spots on it.

Hiding a fruit knife behind the door—what was his intention? It was self-evident.

The man trembled even more, his already small body now appearing even weaker and more fragile.

“I—I was just… just…”

Just trying to rob and take advantage.

That was his true intention, but how could he dare to admit it?

Wu Yong had followed the group earlier and had seen two women enter the bathroom. But when they followed in after them, the women had disappeared without a trace.

Everyone understood: they had hidden the shelter inside there.

If he could set up his shelter near them, in this world, wouldn’t they have to rely on him for protection? In that case, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to take a little interest, right?

Thinking of the two women’s striking beauty, Wu Yong felt like he was about to reach heaven.

While everyone was still discussing, he had taken the last intact door in the bathroom, successfully setting up the shelter.

He had just been about to go outside to check the situation, hoping to run into the two women, when he unexpectedly saw one of them dragging something as she walked back.

This was the opportunity heaven had sent him.

Wu Yong immediately chose to hide behind the main door, waiting in ambush.

Who would have thought this woman would be so violent?!

Now his head was spinning, his hands were aching terribly.

He lowered his head and unexpectedly noticed a pool of fresh red blood spreading across the ground beneath him.

“Ah—blood!”

The man’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

Lin Chu: …

At the same time, she heard the sound of a door opening behind her.

The girl with the pigtails rushed out from the second-to-last stall, holding a metal spatula. She had barely run two steps when she came to an abrupt halt.

There was a brief moment of silence in the bathroom.

Lin Chu thought she saw two words in the pigtail girl’s eyes:

Is this it?

The pigtail girl quickly snapped back to her senses and lowered the spatula she had raised.

“I heard noise and thought I’d come help…” But she didn’t expect that with just a spatula in hand, the man would faint so quickly.

She didn’t finish her sentence, and instead changed the topic. “Thanks for this morning. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be dead by now.”

Heard noise?

Lin Chu glanced at her for a moment, her lips curling slightly. “Just a little help.”

Lin Chu had seen the situation clearly this morning. If it hadn’t been for the pigtail girl’s own resilience, even if she had helped, the girl wouldn’t have survived with so many zombies surrounding her.

After saying this, Lin Chu took a step toward her shelter. She was in a hurry to check her mission rewards.

She pulled out the key from her bag but suddenly remembered something and turned to look at the pigtail girl. “Those people already know the location of our shelter. You should activate the anti-theft door as soon as possible while still in the newbie protection period.”

After dropping this reminder, she didn’t wait for the girl’s reaction or expression. She picked up the two sacks of zombies from the floor and entered the shelter.

If she had to choose a neighbor, Lin Chu would obviously prefer the pigtail girl.

If that group of nuisances ended up living next door, it would be a hassle for her to come and go.

She had given her reminder, and whether or not the pigtail girl could activate the anti-theft door before the crisis arrived was no longer her concern.

As soon as she entered, Lin Chu received a system prompt.

[Current World: Anti-theft Door Activated, Anti-theft Protection Enabled.]

[Additional Reward: Expansion of 3㎡, Host may arrange expansion plan at their discretion.]

Upon clicking the second prompt, Lin Chu saw a floor plan appear before her. She immediately recognized it as the layout of her shelter.

Currently, her shelter was a rectangular space measuring 3 meters by 2 meters, totaling only 6㎡. The 3㎡ expansion she had been rewarded with could be arranged however she liked. In other words, she could choose to add all 3㎡ to the bathroom if she wished.

And Lin Chu…

Did exactly that.

She needed an operating table.

Dissecting zombies for points was undoubtedly a huge task, and having an operating table would save her a lot of effort.

The original space in her shelter was quite tight. Aside from the bed and the bathroom, there was only a narrow passage, about one person’s width, where she could store some miscellaneous items.

She had even considered placing zombies on her bed to dissect them.

Now, with the 3㎡ expansion, she no longer needed to sacrifice her little bed.

She had originally planned to separate another space for a dissection room, but unfortunately, the system informed her that her space level wasn’t high enough, so she could only expand the area within the existing rooms, including the bathroom.

So, she decided to expand the bathroom, which was originally only 1㎡, into a 4㎡ L-shaped bathroom.

The bathroom was still on the right side as you entered, but the depth of the space had increased from 1 meter to 2 meters. At the end of the room, there was now a 3-meter deep and 1-meter wide space on the left.

Unfortunately, there was no door, but if there had been one, she could have isolated the bathroom and turned it into a separate dissection room.

However, for now, being able to separate the living area was enough for Lin Chu.

She tossed the two bags containing the zombie bodies into the dissection room and laid out the remaining 12 zombie bodies neatly at the far end of the room.

After retreating to the bathroom, she sized up the door opening in front of her.

Although the system didn’t allow her to have a third space, she wondered if it would be possible to install a simple wooden door herself using some planks. That should work, right?

Running the idea through her mind, the system remained silent. Lin Chu understood—after spending a few hours with the system, she had figured out its logic. No response meant tacit approval.

Lin Chu immediately added planks to her list of supplies for her next scavenging trip.

This time, Lin Chu had made quite a profit. In addition to activating the anti-theft door and expanding her space, those 14 zombie bodies were worth a potential 200+ points.

Even if the group outside camped in front of her shelter for the next 30 days, preventing her from going out to gather supplies, she could still survive by using those points to buy nutrient liquids.

However…

Before she could start dismantling zombies for points, she would need a proper set of dissection tools.

Currently, she only had the fruit knife she had just acquired.

Looking at the rust on it, Lin Chu’s thoughts shifted…

A flash of white light, and Lin Chu found herself staring at the “mutated” fruit knife in her hand. Though covered in rust, it was surprisingly sharp. She felt a mix of bewilderment and frustration.

[Item: Rusty Fruit Knife
Rarity: B
Item Description: The blade is covered with rich and even rust, with a black blade coming out red. While its power is not great, it has a 100% tetanus probability.]

Well, that’s something.

Lin Chu looked at the item description and couldn’t help but feel amazed at the system’s function of transforming waste into treasure.

Her original goal was to turn the fruit knife into a sharp, rust-free tool, but since she hadn’t found a suitable dissection tool yet, she could use the fruit knife as a substitute for now.

However, she never expected it to be reverse-engineered like this.

But the 100% tetanus effect? That was something Lin Chu liked.

After all, if tetanus wasn’t treated in time, the mortality rate was nearly 100%.

But in this world, everyone was struggling to survive, and unless she found a survivor base, no one could access tetanus vaccines in time.

Unfortunately, tetanus was a delayed, continuous damage effect, like a debuff in a game that caused continuous health loss rather than an immediate death.

Still, Lin Chu now had another life-saving method.

This rust-covered blade might not kill immediately, but it would certainly cause intense pain if someone got injured.

As for the dissection tools, that would have to be considered separately. If necessary, she could temporarily use the Swiss Army knife she received from the system rewards.

After collecting her spoils, Lin Chu entered the bathroom, stripped off her clothes, took a quick shower, and then made the bed with the bedding provided by the system. Feeling somewhat fatigued, she lay down.

She had just gone through a round of fighting, and the zombies near her shelter that had been cleared were now gathering around the bathroom, stirred up by the shout from the idiot at the door.

Now, those zombies were excited. She didn’t plan to confront them head-on just yet.

The area she was in wasn’t small, and although it appeared the humans had evacuated, they had left in a hurry, so there were surely some supplies left behind.

She needed to recover her stamina and plan her next move carefully.